A California rail company boss has been found guilty of using embezzled public funds to build himself a secret apartment in a train station.
Former Caltrains Deputy Director Joseph Navarro was convicted on Wednesday for misappropriation of public funds after a jury found him guilty of building a personal ‘crash pad’ in the Burlingame train station near San Francisco, Mercury News reported.
He claimed his supervisor had given him permission to build the apartment as he was working 80-hour weeks and was known to sleep in his office.
‘We’re very pleased that the jury was able to see through the defense and recognize that he had no authorization from anybody to build this little apartment there at the train station with taxpayer money,’ San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said.
Navarro’s lawyer, Andrew Vandeveld, said they were ‘disappointed with the outcome,’ according to Mercury News.
‘We felt it had been established that he had been authorized to do the work and that the statute of limitations to bring the case expired long ago,’ he said.
Prosecutors accused Navarro of keeping invoices under $3,000 so that it would not need further approval, Mercury News reported. They alleged the $38,000 it took to build the apartment from 2019 to 2021 would have needed approval.
‘Mr Navarro abused his authority as rail operations director in multiple ways, multiple times, affecting multiple people,’ Deputy District Attorney Joseph Cannon said.
Former Caltrains Deputy Director, Joseph Navarro, was convicted on Wednesday for misappropriation of public funds after a jury found him guilty of building his little ‘crash pad’ in the Burlingame train station (pictured) near San Francisco
Navarro’s lawyer, Andrew Vandeveld, said they were ‘disappointed with the outcome.’ He argued his client was a dedicated worker who ‘loved his job’
‘Turning a historic train station into your personal crash pad is 100 percent a conflict of interest. That’s just common sense.’
However, Navarro’s lawyer argued his client was a dedicated worker who ‘loved his job.’
He also argued that Navarro’s direct supervisor, Michelle Bouchard, knew about the construction and even asked for a status update.
‘Asking for a status update? That’s consent,’ Vandeveld argued. He also argued that keeping invoices under $3,000 was not abnormal.
Despite that, Navarro was found guilty and will be sentenced on June 11.
His co-conspirator, Seth Andrew Worden, a former employee of TransAmerica Services Inc, took a plea deal.
The criminal complaint alleged that Worden used $8,000 in taxpayer funds to build himself a similar pad inside Millbrae train station.
Caltrain employees first discovered the converted space at the Millbrae station in 2020.
Navarro’s alleged place in Burlingame, however, evaded detection until Caltrain received an anonymous tip in 2022.
